UK Airline Cancels 'Flytilla' Tickets on Israel Objections
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
British airline Jet2.com said Saturday it has cancelled tickets for an unspecified number of passengers planning to attend a pro-Palestinian activist gathering after Israel raised objections.
The Guardian newspaper had reported that Jet2.com contacted three women passengers late Friday to inform them that their seats were cancelled on a flight to Tel Aviv scheduled to take off from Manchester, northern England, at 0900 GMT on Sunday.
However, a company spokeswoman declined to comment on the number of affected passengers, adding that all the airline's tickets are non-refundable.
"Jet2.com is legally required to provide advance passenger information for all passengers departing from and arriving into the UK to the appropriate immigration authorities," the company said in a statement.
"As a result of providing that information, Jet2.com was informed by the Israeli authorities that certain passengers booked to travel on flight LS907 would not be permitted to enter Israel.
"We were further advised that if we were to allow them to travel, we would be responsible for their immediate return to the UK.
"In light of this position by the Israeli authorities, we were unable to accept them to travel on the flight."
The news comes after German airline Lufthansa on Friday cancelled dozens of tickets of pro-Palestinian activists for this weekend, adding that it was complying with Israeli advice.
Israeli security forces last week began bracing for a "fly-in" of hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists expected to arrive at Ben Gurion airport this weekend.
The activists, mainly from European countries, are expected to try to fly into Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, with the goal of travelling to the Palestinian West Bank.
The so-called "Welcome to Palestine" campaign, which has been dubbed a "flytilla," is taking place for a third consecutive year.
14 April 2012, 18:39
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Israel has no right to act as Palestine's customs and immigration officials. They have no right to do anything. They do not exist. The difference between a mob and an army is that the army has a legal corporate existence.
15 April 2012, 00:45
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chrisrushlau: on the contrary.
Israel has the full right to prevent from those arriving for provocation and demonstrate against its existence. those wishing to come visiting their Palestinian friends can come through Jordan.
The Palestinian started a war against Jews in 1947 and lost.
Israel is an independent country recognized by the UN.
The Palestinian rejected the UN resolution and started a war against the your state and lost.
Can not imaging what would have happen to the Jews of Palestine if they lost the war against the Arabs.
The "Arabian humanity" would have showed its face then. think there were no sufficient trees and gallows to hang all Jews.
So Palestinian lost and wouldn't accept their defeat, if the money they spent for propaganda all these years against Israel would have been diverted to their benefit the conflict between them and Jews could have been completely different.
14 April 2012, 23:47
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If they so worried about human rights maybe Syria is the place now....
Or maybe they are just anti-Israel (modern anti-Semites) and because this Israel don't allow them in
